Carnival of Color

 

Audrey made this vibrant Carnival of Color quilt.  The pattern is a freebie from Free Spirit Fabrics and uses the bold fabrics of Kaffe Fassett.

Audrey selected a new pantograph from my collection called Feather Unfurled.  We used pink thread top and bottom to continue the vibrant feeling of this quilt.

The way Aurey fussy cut the fabrics for the on point squares really adds a lot to the final product.

Winter Mittens

I am happy to share a quilt that is all mine!  This quilt came together a part of a Queen Bee block swap I participated in last year.   Every month one member of the group would select a block pattern and the other participants would make two blocks and pop them in the mail.  I selected this free Winter Mittens pattern from Sew Fresh quilts and sent everyone a piece of my background fabric.

Here are some close up photos of all the cool blocks I received.

From Andrea

From Kathy

From Shalane

From Lee

From Reneta

From Janie

From Amy

From Shelly

Made by me

Made by me

I selected the Snow Winds pantograph as it just seemed fitting.

And I finally found the perfect opportunity to use this interesting piece of wide backing fabric that had been sitting on my shelf for awhile.  I think it fit in perfectly.

Dots and Dashes

 

This fantastic scrap busting quilt was made by Reneta.  Reneta makes a lot of scrap quilts and I think this is one of my favorite patterns that she has used.  The pattern is called Dots and Dashes and you can check out the free tutorial here.

The pattern isn't really complex, but it is very effective.  When you look at the little individual squares it is hard to imagine how they will all look good together, but they certainly do!

Reneta selected the Dragon's Breath pantograph which is a lovely contrast to all of the squares.

Tessa Quilt

 

Kristine made this stunning quilt for her 17 year old son Carter.  The interesting part of the story is that Kristine had nothing to do with the fabric selection.  Carter selected the fabrics with the help of George (aka Mr. Fabriculous) at Fabriculous in Brandon, Manitoba.  I personally think they did an outstanding job.

The pattern is called the Tessa Quilt by Kitchen Table Quilting.  

Carter selected the Arrowful pantograph and the black Cuddle backing.  I love how he was invested in all the decisions surrounding this quilt.

Seasonal Sampler

The is Mary's festive Christmas quilt.  The quilted started out with Mary following along with the American Patchwork and Quilting Seasonal Sampler 2022.  Mary substituted some of blocks for others she found and liked to truly make the project her own.

I love all the fun Christmas fabrics Mary included.  She told me the fabric in the present block was from a stocking she made for her son when he was young.

Mary selected the Snow Winds Pantograph and a white thread to make sure it didn't take away from all the darling blocks.

Mary found a lovely flannel print with snowmen for the backing and the most wonderful candy cane stripe for the binding that was added by Bindings by Marion.

Aperiodic - an oops and a fix

Do you remember this beautiful Aperiodic quilt that Marlene made?  Marlene was the original pattern tester for her daughter Janice's pattern design.  After Marlene got the binding on she realized that there was an error in the placement of two blocks.  When Marlene emailed to tell me this news I scoured the pictures I took and struggled at first to find the error.  Can you see it?  The picture is below is the after it was all fixed.

I'm not sure how many of us would undertake what Marlene did to correct the mistake.  I didn't think it was very noticeable at all, but Marlene couldn't unsee it, and she and her daughter were shocked they didn't see it in all the checking before the quilt originally came to my studio.  Marlene and I agreed that because of the original quilting design, fixing this and restoring the quilting was realistic.  Marelene is not afraid of a little extra work, so she forged ahead and I like a challenge every once in awhile so I agreed to join in on the journey.

The first thing Marlene did was to trace the quilting design in the areas where she was going to remove the blocks.  (I hadn't thought of this originally but it really made my part of this operation easier.)

Marlene's next task was to carefully rip back the quilting stitches and tie off and bury the thread past the area she was going to remove and replace. After that she carefully removed the offending block and hand stitched the correct one back in place.   Marlene does beautiful hand applique, so this skill was definitely in her wheel house.

 

Now it was my turn.  The quilt was completely finished with binding, and one of the areas that need quilting was right against the binding so how was I going to load it back on my frame?

I didn't need to quilt near the top edge so I was able to load that side back on just using my red snappers just below the binding seam.  It was a tight fit, but it worked.

I basted a scrap piece of fabric to the binding along the bottom so that I could attach it to my frame and quilt right up to the binding seam.

I used the tracing Marlene provided to mark the quilting pattern back on the quilt top using an air erasable pen and chalk. (This was an easier option than trying line up the paper pantograph and work from the back of the machine.)   I then stitched and connected the quilting sections.  There were quite a few starts and stops as it was bits an pieces of multiple pantograph rows.

I was very pleased with the results.  Once the marking lines were removed it was very hard to tell where the surgery and restitching took place.  

Now Marlene can just enjoy her beautiful quilt without seeing things she doesn't want to see!